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Bert Vorgon's Spring Maintenance Project

Posted: 10 Feb 2013 09:32
by bertvorgon
Morning World.
Yesterday was the start of my spring project(s), basically taking the car back to a more street friendly mode.
Back in 1983, after my crash at Westwood, there we two other 510's in Andy's shop at the time, Tracey's and Georges cars, being modified for road racing. It was decided that if we did everything in 3's, the economy of scale would sure help. For me I was determined to go after the C-Modified Championship. So along with that went the pitching of a lot of bits and pieces, more so for the others, but, there were some common things. The Lexan side windows were installed in all the cars, with me pitching the window mechanism on the passenger side ( Lexan in the drivers, but it does roll down.), the horns, seats, e-brake, few other bits. The windows were done to of course get some up- high weight off the car. My traffic exposure then was pretty minimal, all things considered. I would drive to Boundry Bay, some 15 minutes of highway driving, and, anything out of town was mainly highways too. The right turn signal was pitched as that is the air intake for the oil cooler.
Now of course, with our club drives, triple the traffic in the Lower mainland, we are in tons of traffic. With that in mind, I need to put my horns back in, put a real glass window back into the passenger side, so my son/passenger does not die in the 112F. heat in the car, a token turn signal will be put in, and a few other small things.
Along with getting the horns in, I will be removing my radiator and get it boiled out, just to make sure it is as clean as a whistle. It's time to change the coolant anyhow, and, taking the rad out lets me get at the wiring where the horns were. I never cut up anything, so I need to find those wires, then check out my steering wheel to see what is left under the horn button. Now, the horns I got are from a Honda Odyssey van. The Honda horns are REALLY loud, rated at 110 dB, and half the size of the 510 ones. James grabbed me some from the wreckers for me, $10.00. I will not be mounting them in the stock location, due to the inter cooler and oil cooler living right above those existing places. I hate setting the alarm on my Odyssey late at night, as the horn "beep" is LOUD.
James also has graciously brought in an old door, so that I may remove the glass and window mechanism. I will have to remove my door panel and see what I did to mount the Lexan, then figure out what may be needed for window felt. We also are going to make a project to remove the window squeegee and see what we can come up with for replacement rubber.
Yesterday I pulled the plugs and valve cover, both to check out the cam lobes, and, to pour some oil over the cam before firing the motor. It did not get properly winterized last fall ( long story) so I have decided to just fire it up once a month here till the spring driving starts. The cam is good, mouse springs intact, no issues seen with the lash pads. Always good to give a good visual after a season of some high RPM, and heat.
Then, later in the spring, the car will be going into Specialty to get my stub axel issue resolved. I have no provision for an e-brake, so that little issue will just hopefully never be put to the requirement test.

I also scored a brand new fuse box, which I will stash away in my parts bin.

Re: Bert Vorgon's Spring Maitenance Project

Posted: 10 Feb 2013 09:33
by bertvorgon
brand new fuse box

Re: Bert Vorgon's Spring Maitenance Project

Posted: 10 Feb 2013 09:41
by jason
Nice Keith! I looked for a stock 510 horn, but, one has not appeared in the stash as yet.

Re: Bert Vorgon's Spring Maitenance Project

Posted: 10 Feb 2013 10:38
by RMS
i have an assortment of columns and steering wheels you can steel horn bits off and some door bits as well

Re: Bert Vorgon's Spring Maintenance Project

Posted: 10 Feb 2013 10:56
by bertvorgon
Thanks, that may be required. It has been so long since I had the steering wheel off, I cannot remember what is left.

My car has turned 40 this year, In my wildest thoughts, when I was a teenager, I would never have thought that I would have had a 40 year old..... CLASSIC car. Back in the early 70's, my friend had a 1952 MG TD, that we worked on trying to restore...we thought that was old then...hah....

I'm off to my back yard, to climb into my hedge, to trim some branches, 15 feet up, if you hear a THUD.....call 911...

Re: Bert Vorgon's Spring Maintenance Project

Posted: 10 Feb 2013 11:41
by jason
Say Keith, when you're done, can you come over and do the Hazelnut and Cherry trees, I can't reach the good bits any longer!

Re: Bert Vorgon's Spring Maintenance Project

Posted: 10 Feb 2013 15:25
by proflex
Lightweight racing horns . 8) I like the picture of the cam! I now know your top-secret turbo cam lob profile, now if you would only let the cam lob timing out of the bag I would have something to work with… :lol:
Good to see you also spent some time working on the 510, the warmer weather sure helps.

Re: Bert Vorgon's Spring Maintenance Project

Posted: 10 Feb 2013 16:17
by datzenmike
Cam:
Likely close to stock timing with minimal increase in overlap. (if any at all) Lift can be any increase.

Re: Bert Vorgon's Spring Maintenance Project

Posted: 10 Feb 2013 16:22
by bertvorgon
Ha..if you only knew.......not close to stock....I did have way too big a cam in there some years ago, stupid overlap..no bottom end until 5,000, then look out, was stupidly fast at the top end, still breathing at 140 MPH.

I actually did a slow fall out of the hedge, much to my wife's excitement..minor detail....no injuries,,hedge is now trimmed by 2-3 feet, and I have a ton of green waste to dispose of. When you have almost fallen over a cliff in the mountains, a hedge pales in comparison.

Re: Bert Vorgon's Spring Maintenance Project

Posted: 10 Feb 2013 18:12
by datzenmike
Almost twenty years ago I came down into the delta from Ontario. Slept in Brandon Mann in my Omni on Valentine's Day. Damn cold even after Ontario. I remember it getting greener and greener and somewhere just east of Vancouver the unmistakable smell of a cut lawn. In Ontario you wouldn't cut a lawn untill it greened up and grew some.... May possibly. I thought I was in heaven.

Re: Bert Vorgon's Spring Maintenance Project

Posted: 10 Feb 2013 18:14
by 510rob
datzenmike wrote:Cam:
Likely close to stock timing with minimal increase in overlap. (if any at all) Lift can be any increase.
haha, nope!

Re: Bert Vorgon's Spring Maintenance Project

Posted: 12 Feb 2013 16:08
by bertvorgon
So, this morning I poured some oil over the cam, buttoned it back up and put in some hot plugs. Hit the key..Ruh, ruh.uh...dead battery.
I did not put my battery maintainer back on on Saturday, but, it points out that my battery is finally done. I had an issue last summer at Knox, so this is another warning shot to put a battery in. It does not owe me anything!
I jump started the car, fired right up after getting some very cold Avgas into the thing. I ran it for about 15-20 minutes, put some heat into it. I would let the water get up to 180-190, then hit the fans to bring it down to 170.
I always cycle the lights, turn signals, brakes, put the car into first and let the power train turn over at an idle. That gets the tranny and diff all oiled up nicely.
Tomorrow I will drain coolant and begin the radiator removal, and send it out for cleaning.

Re: Bert Vorgon's Spring Maintenance Project

Posted: 15 Feb 2013 16:45
by proflex
Do you use distilled water in your antifreeze mix. I have been doing this for the last 30 years and swear by it. My old Civic that I had for 18 years had its coolant changed every 3 to 4 years with fresh distilled water { drug stores sell it dirt cheap in 4L bottles} and antifreeze, the inside of the original rad still looked like new the day we traded it in for a new Civic.

Re: Bert Vorgon's Spring Maintenance Project

Posted: 17 Feb 2013 07:37
by bertvorgon
Morning World!

Another grey, dark, rainy day, sucking ones soul deep into despair, the black well pulling ones energy away.........wait...I have a 510...it can't be all that bad.....
A good week of progress was accomplished, with Murphy actually leaving me alone on this go around. I got the radiator out, and is was time for a good cleaning, not too bad, but time. I have had this rad since 1983, so it owes me nothing, but I'm glad it's still ok, solid actually. And yes Chad, I have used de-mineralized water, really the only thing one should use. I run a very thin mix of anit-freeze, which even the radiator tech guy commented on. Most of my "stuff" in the rad was iron oxides from the block.
With the radiator removed, it was onto finding the wires for both the horns and the right turn signal. Fortunately I have never been a "hacker", so there they were, horns and turn signal wires. The turn signal was really buried under the oil cooler, so it took some careful fishing to get it out. I noticed that in the turn signal case, there was only one wire poking out, and there should have been two, as the front bulb is an 1157, just like a brake light. One filament is for the running light, and the other is for the turn flasher. Under more careful examination, the other wire is buried WAY under the oil cooler, that goes to the side marker light. Ahha, at least I have the flasher accessible, I can always run a split from the left side running light if I have to. With James's help, we put a test light on it, and I put the turn signal on.....IT FLASHED!!! Yeeha, no issues there. I just need to fab up some small lens/light assembly to sit just at the edge of the oil cooler intake.
Onto the horn(s) now. I pulled the horn button off the steering wheel, the mechanism was totally intact, and, the wire from the hub was there, bonus round again. With a bright light shining through the steering column lip, we could see that the brass strip was still in place. The question to be was, was it still making connections and was the horn relay still working? That relay has not been triggered since I don't know when. Again, it was 1983 when I took all the bits off the car, when I went after the B.C. Championship(s). James held the test light, I held my breath, and touched the wire to the steering wheel...it lit up! Wow, two for two! I must admit, I had the feeling if it ain't broke, don't fix it, when I started this project. Me and Mr. Electron never get along too well at the best of times. The BIG bonus of course was the horn relay was clunking very nice and solid. Heck, the mere fact that I left it in place was a bit of a miracle.
I can see now a few places to mount the horns, this weekend I will solder the spade connectors onto the Honda wires. There are some blind nuts on the lower rad support, so I will make up something there. I will connect the hub wire to the horn button and I should be good to go on that project.
I picked up the rad from the shop on Friday....NOT PAINTED...which I requested. I just put a flash of gloss black over it, not that thick sticky paint the rad shops use. I will not put the rad back until I have done my methanol injection service. This requires access to the solenoids, which is really easy to do with the rad and inter cooler out. You can see how I mounted the Honda Civic fan to the radiator. We did that originally more to blow cool air back over the turbo, to help with cooling after coming in from a blazing Solo run, or, at the top of the Hillclimbs.
I gave the compressor wheel a wiggle, it seems fine. There are a LOT of miles on this turbo now, and about 17 years of service. I still have my bigger turbine housing which I would like to try, but, considering most of our drives and events are pretty slow speed now, I don't want to lose any lower end response.
Once I get this series of projects out of the way, I move on to rebuilding the Delta Gate.
When I took my air cleaner assembly out, I had to remove my temp probe I zapped onto the top of the air cleaner. It was this probe that showed how much hot air washes down from the rad, and due to the negative pressure behind the air dam, thus picking up 30+F. above ambient, and even more during traffic situations. That is 3HP and some mid range torque. I'd love to move it SOMEWHERE...... You can see how it mounts down below the lower rad support, which if it did not get that heated air, is a perfect spot. The air cleaner does stay really clean there, as it is totally protected by the air dam. That is a 3" pipe, so it flows LOTS of air. I made everything as "sub" assembly's, which makes maintenance easier. The whole air cleaner piping and methanol sprayers comes out as a unit, the methanol solenoids come out, as a unit. Think about that when you are building stuff, just makes life easier. I use a lot of the two and 3 prong trailer connectors, they make solid connections, and withstand years of removal without fatiguing.

Re: Bert Vorgon's Spring Maintenance Project

Posted: 17 Feb 2013 07:39
by bertvorgon
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